Censorship on social media

A bill proposed by media organizations aims to tighten control over negative content proliferated via social media, a growing problem that threatens social harmony in Indonesia, where 130 million people are active internet users. The proposal was initiated by the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI), the Indonesian Television Journalist Association (IJTI) and the Press Council with the purpose of curbing the spread of fake news, hate speech and extremist propaganda online. Like many countries, Indonesia has been confronted by the spread of fake news and other forms of negative content online. In recent years, the problem has been exacerbated by political rivalries, sectarianism and religious conservatism. The initiators said if the bill was endorsed, the law would become a legal basis for social media platforms to self-censor their own content. It would also complement relevant legislation already in place, such as the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) … [Read more...] about Proposed bill aims to control negative content on social media

caption President Xi Jinping oversees a wide network of propaganda and censorship in China. source Kevin Frayer/Getty The Chinese Communist Party is keen to portray itself as a peaceful and scandal-free power. It refuses to acknowledge its human rights abuses, and discrimination against LGBT community and feminists. It’s not easy to do in the digital age, where nearly half of China’s citizens use the internet. These are four of the most commonly used tricks in the party’s playbook. The ways that China has been monitoring and ranking its citizens, secretly imprisoning ethnic minorities, and ignoring its LGBT community have been widely documented in the West. But citizens in China itself may have no idea that any of these things are going on. Beijing has a rich playbook of tactics to keep its 1.4 billion citizens from learning about the country’s repression and … [Read more...] about Planting spies, paying people to post on social media, and pretending the news doesn’t exist: This is how China tries to distract people from human rights abuses

With the general elections a couple of months away, media houses and publications in Pakistan are increasingly exercising self-censorship under pressure from the military establishment. The latest instance of this type of censorship was the state media not airing Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s press conference on Monday after the National Security Committee meeting on Nawaz Sharif’s Mumbai attacks statement. The dailyReport Must-reads from across Asia - directly to your inbox News producers from multiple media houses have confirmed that there were clear instructions from the military leadership to censor the PM’s press conference, which resulted in even the state-owned PTV editing Abbasi’s comments before airing them. Pakistani media has been under attack from multiple sources in the country, prompting watchdogs like the Freedom Network to dub it the “most dangerous place to be a journalist.” However, the army’s involvement in … [Read more...] about Self censorship descends on Pakistani media as polls loom

caption China’s President Xi Jinping looks on during a signing meeting with Maldives President Abdulla Yameen at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China December 7, 2017. source REUTERS/Fred Dufour/Pool China’s ruling Communist Party wants to get rid of presidential term limits for General Secretary and President Xi Jinping. Chinese citizens responded by spreading memes of Winnie the Pooh, a joke that has been ongoing in China because of the leader’s apparent similarity to the fictional bear. Chinese censors are cracking down on the memes, as well as speech that is negative of the CCP’s plan to scrap term limits. Many Chinese citizens responded in a peculiar way to Sunday’s announcement that the Chinese Communist Party may get rid of presidential term limits – by posting images of Winnie the Pooh on social media. The pictures target Xi Jinping, who could now stay … [Read more...] about Pictures of Winnie the Pooh are getting banned on social media after China announces Xi Jinping may stay in power for life

Ever since the 2016 US presidential election, with its revelations about Russian meddling, European officials have been on the lookout for similar attacks. But Europeans aren’t the only ones paying attention. So, too, are China’s leaders, who are considering what they might learn from the Kremlin’s successes. For Chinese President Xi Jinping, maintaining domestic stability is a top priority, a point underscored by the country’s annual budget for internal security. At well over US$100 billion, the official number is low. Like defence outlays, the real number is much higher, owing to hidden spending, including on research and development.For example, China is exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) and big data can be used to monitor everything from social media to credit-card spending, and it plans to assign all citizens a social-reliability rating to weed out potential troublemakers. The regime’s Orwellian strategy is focused squarely on social media … [Read more...] about Will China weaponise social media?